Man weeps at jail term over date-rape drug raid

Man weeps at jail term over date-rape drug raid; Hells Angels associate's 350L of GHB the most ever seized in Canada

A Hells Angels associate has been sentenced to six years in prison after police made what is described as Canada's largest seizure of the date rape drug GHB from his garage.

Mark Figueiredo, 30, wept as he hugged his wife, sister and niece before he was led away in handcuffs.

The Toronto man has no previous criminal record, but he chose to do business with the Hells Angels, found by judges to be a criminal organization, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer.

The drug GHB has legal purposes, but the fact that Figueiredo dealt with the Hells Angels leads to the inescapable conclusion that the liquid "was not for legitimate or benign" purposes," Nordheimer said.

GHB is one of at least three "date rape" drugs that can render victims physically helpless and unable to remember events afterward.

Figueiredo pleaded guilty in July to conspiring with six other men, five alleged to be Hells Angels members, to traffic in 600 litres of GHB, worth $1.2 million.

Police found 350 litres in Figueiredo's garage on Crawford. St., in west Toronto, described by prosecutor Hugh O'Connell as the largest seizure of the drug in Canada.

Figueiredo was arrested as part of Project Develop, which charged alleged Hells Angels members in April 2007 following a series of police raids across southern Ontario. He is not a Hells Angels member.

Several co-accused have pleaded guilty, others are before the courts.

The judge accepted a joint submission by O'Connell and defence lawyer Fred Shanahan, and sentenced Figueiredo to six years.

According to an agreed statement of facts, in May 2006 police found $2,000 in cocaine and some marijuana at Figueiredo's home.

Police had placed him under surveillance and in January 2006 saw him carry plastic bags, believed to contain GHB into the Toronto home of a known Hells Angels member. A police agent at the home paid the Hells Angels member $1,600 for eight litres of GHB.

Acting on suspicion Figueiredo was stashing GHB for Hells Angels, police executed a warrant on Feb. 15 and found the GHB in his garage.